The blog for Lone Star linksters - news and notes from the world of Texas Golf.

Monday, December 03, 2012

AT&T Will Be Next Title Sponsor at Byron Nelson Championship, Also Building New DFW Course

The Byron Nelson Championship's current title sponsor is HP, and HP (Hewlett-Packard) will have that role through the 2014 tournament. But not afterward.

The tournament announced recently that AT&T will take over as tournament title sponsor beginning with the 2015 event.

A PGA of America article relates that this is big news because it's only one part of what AT&T has planned in the DFW golf community:

Also Friday, Dallas city officials announced a partnership with AT&T and Southern Methodist University to build a semi-private golf complex in the Trinity River Forest south of downtown. That facility will become the home of the SMU golf program and the First Tee of Greater Dallas, and will be designed to host PGA Tour events as well.

"The possibility exists that the Byron Nelson Championship may be played at the Trinity River facility," PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said by phone, according to WFAA-TV.

The Trinity Forest Golf Complex, as it will be known, will contain a regulation 18-hole course; a nine-hole short course; what officials termed a "world class" practice facility; a facility for the SMU men’s and women’s golf teams; an administrative structure for the First Tee; the Texas Horse Park for the SMU equestrian teams; and recreational trails, according to Mayor Mike Rawlings.

"This will be a game-changing investment in southern Dallas," said Rawlings. Construction on the facility is set to begin in 2013, pending approval by the Dallas City Council, with the spring of 2016 set as a tentative completion date.